A football life

STOCKTON - If football were a religion, you could call Carlos Franco a missionary. If football were a country, you could call Franco an ambassador.

Dana M. Nichols

STOCKTON - If football were a religion, you could call Carlos Franco a missionary. If football were a country, you could call Franco an ambassador.

Franco, 40, has done almost everything possible in the world of passes, punts, tackles and kicks. He played football from Pop Warner to the pros. He went to college on a football scholarship, he answered the call to coach the Franklin High team when it needed him most, and he's even done a little coaching for professional arena football teams.

"For me, it's everything," Franco said of the years he's spent involved in football. "I got an education out of it and a career."

His career, to be clear, is as a driver's education instructor at Franklin and part-time employee at Cassidy's pawn shop in downtown Stockton. Franco played professional football for two years in a European league. He last was on the field as a player 15 years ago in Dortmund, Germany.

Franco keeps his hand in the game. He's about to spend his spring break and some of his vacation time working as a coaching intern for the San Jose SaberCats, an Arena Football League team whose head coach, Darren Arbet, is an Edison High graduate. On March 7, Franco will be with the SaberCats when they play the Chicago Rush in a preseason game at Stockton Arena.

Every summer, Franco spends a month in Tepatitlan, Mexico, teaching a football clinicin a nation where soccer is king is nothing short of a miracle.

Franco admits that growing up a working class Latino in Stockton created some extra obstacles for him. In fact, the first two years that he played Pop Warner football, he concealed that fact from his parents. He said an older neighbor, a white kid named Benjamin Pippenger, invited Franco along to the East Side Lions Pop Warner team practice.

"I was 10," Franco said.

At the time, Franco said his parents expressed concern that football was dangerous. However, Franco said he saw it as a prejudice against the sport and noted that his parents would have supported other dangerous activities.

"My dad would say, 'You can't play football, but my son will ride that horse,' " Franco said. "They didn't even know I played for a while. I had to hide it from them."

Franco became a running back and played at Franklin. He earned a football scholarship to Trinity College in Illinois and transferred to Cal State Hayward, where he became an all-conference player and team captain.

During his college years, Franco's parents never came to a game.

"It's just because they were never around it," Franco said of their distance from the sport he loves.

Franco said he's met many Latinos who have similar feelings. Often, he was the only Latino on a team or at a tryout.

"I never, ever beat out a Mexican guy for a position," Franco said.

Now, he is doing what he can to change that. In addition to teaching the clinic each year in Tepatitlan, Franco said he urges young Latinos whose build or skills are right for football to consider the sport. He sees it as an avenue for many Latino athletes who may not have the physique for soccer.

One of the greatest challenges in his career came in 2008, when Franklin officials asked him to coach the team. The school's program was in disarray. The year before, longtime coach Tom Verner had resigned in the wake of a recruiting scandal.

In his first season, Franco found himself on the field with new players, as many players from Verner's Franklin teams transferred to other schools.

"That was tough," Franco said. "There were times where, at practice, believe it or not, I had eight guys."

Because of the scandal, players on the team had to endure a high level of scrutiny, including frequent grade checks. Eventually, Franco and the new players turned things around. By his second season, the Yellowjackets began winning again. After three seasons, with the Franklin program back on its feet, Franco resigned so he could pursue other interests.

Franco's toughness and work ethic are well known to others in the world of football.

Businessman David Mairs, the former coach of the now-defunct California Eagles indoor football team, is now working with Franco and others to find a way to permanently bring some level of arena football to Stockton.

"He's a good guy," Mairs said of Franco. "He's good for the community."